Lucie Shatalova
Pear
SUSAN HEAL
Racoon Skull
Stay tuned for more images of this little skull. Susan is currently working on a watercolour of it from a different angle altogether.
MERIEL LINDLEY
Iris
Meriel's mix of ink and watercolour, a play of blues and violets. She's set herself the parameters of completing a painting every week during our 3-hour classes, start to finish. The results are fresh and alive, loose and playful.
It's nice to see her background in Chinese brush painting coming through and into her present practice.
PAM COHEN
Orchid
Pam worked on this orchid for a long time after the blooms were spent, relying on photos for colour and shadow references. It was a real challenge to get the depth of colour needed without sacrificing translucency and light.
It can be very difficult to paint dark or highly saturated subjects without creating a thick crust of paint, something to avoid with watercolour. Pam struggled with trying to layer washes that seemed to refuse to darken. She eventually managed to increase the concentration of her washes and work in some dry brush to create a velvety rich surface.
I really love the drape of the composition that comes from outside the frame and the way the little buds are painted, hanging quietly over the the emptiness at the bottom of the page.
SUSAN HEAL
Double Hydrangea
Susan worked on this beautiful and unusual bloom this past winter. She's really captured the texture of the flower with great delicacy and care, managing to keep the lacework of veins light and natural.
For those of you who don't paint, the only way to do this well with watercolour is to paint around the veins, leaving the light areas. You can't paint light over dark with this medium so planning and care are needed to successfully render a subject with light coloured veins. It's a great challenge and one the Susan has met remarkably well.
I've moved in closer to show the delicate bits of colour within the colours. After the initial loose underpainted washes were applied to set the colour of the veins and general areas, deeper colour was built up using dry brush by layering tiny bits of paint to achieve intensity and dimension.
Everything has a thickness, no matter how thin, and depending on how the light falls that thickness will appear either light or dark. You can see the light hitting the edge of the curling petal above showing the thickness as light and on other petals as dark. Attention to details like this is what makes a painting really sing.
FABIENNE DELIBALTA
Leaves and Grapevine
Fabienne discovered this little curl of grapevine in a bag of grapes and found it so inspiring she included it in her most recent painting. It's an airy composition of elements floating in space emphasizing the lightness of the dried leaves and twig.
A desire to explore the grapevine and brightly coloured leaves a little further has set Fabienne to work on a second composition with two of the leaves and which will include the very challenging element of painting their cast shadows ...coming soon :)
LUCIE SHATALOVA
Maple Key
This elegant composition is Lucie's second watercolour painting.
She chose to depict this maple key much larger than life to show off the delicate beauty of its transparent veining. So often these small things that we see everyday are not truly visible to us until someone decides to show it to us in this way. It reminds me of these words...
Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small.
We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Lucy's done a great job of showing us the richness of the colours and of keeping the light in this painting, both in the lacy top and in the swell of the seed pod.
MICHAEL LYONS
Violet
This painting is a perfect example of how important "negative spaces" are to a composition... those shapes in a drawing or painting that are created by what isn't there. That little white flame shape at the centre of the leaf is such an intrinsic part of what makes this painting so satisfying. Use your finger to block it out and you'll see what I mean.
FABIENNE DELIBALTA
Apple
Fabienne's luminous apple, a MacIntosh, was painted in the fall but I've fallen way behind in posting... so here it is at last!
She was happy with everything about this painting, especially the way it glows from within, but not the dark shadow on the right, only worth mentioning because it's a common frustration in the early stages. It's hard not to default to blues when mixing shadow colours. This can make for a darkness that looks like it's sitting on top of the colour of the object itself, in this case the red. What we want is for the red to still look red but darker...red with less light coming from within. It means deepening the mix without losing that red.
But words are words and paint is paint. I like how Laurie Anderson put it: "Talking about painting is like dancing about architecture."
I, too, like the luminosity of this painting and the subtle details she managed to show very successfully...the texture and markings on the skin and that little stem shadow that works perfectly without being too blue or too dark.
We'll come back to the subject of shadows again with Fabienne...she's on a mission now.
PAM COHEN
Artichoke
She worked so hard to depict the leaf texture in the first painting that everything else was forgotten until she stepped back and saw what was missing.
The second painting considered the whole in balance with the details, including volume, depth of colour and shadows while retaining the ridges in the leaves she worked so hard for previously.
The result is a strong, confident and complete painting.
It often takes more than one go to really see a subject and paint it well, but the results speak for themselves.
MERIEL LINDLEY
Falling Leaf
Two more of Meriel's little postcard-sized mixed media paintings, each done in one three-hour session. She then sends them off to friends!
Chestnut
The lightness and playfulness that Meriel brings to her work now is inspiring...not getting caught up in limitations and just enjoying herself for a little while and delighting their recipients with a little original painting sent through the post. A radical act in our mediated, digital image-saturated world.
FABIENNE DELIBALTA
Maple Leaves
Fabienne's new painting of curling dried maple leaves showing both front and back in a delightful circular composition.
She told me that she painted the back of the leaf quite quickly and was much happier with the result, after having spent so many weeks on the front, struggling to get the curls and shadows right.
Sometimes things go better when you get out of your head and just trust yourself, your eyes and your brush.
Easier said than done!
MERIEL LINDLEY
Chrysanthemum
As I've mentioned in previous posts, Meriel lost most of the sight in one of her eyes a few years ago. She loved the experience of painting so much that after an initial stage of discouragement, she adapted to a looser approach and hasn't looked back since.
For this painting I lent her my large watercolour block (12"x16") and off she went. She painted the flower head first, and came back a week later to add the leaves and stem. The resulting painting, a class favorite, is as light and airy as the flower supported by some dark, anchoring leaves.
She has since purchased a larger block of her own and is painting in her local community garden space. I'll be posting some of those in the near future.
NADIA CHIU
Autumn Leaf
Below are the pictures I took of it as it developed along with the final painting so you can see how it came into colour before it reached completion.
PAM COHEN
Buddha's Hand | Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis
"Though it looks like a lemon gone wild, the Buddha's hand is actually a distinct fruit in the citron family. It has a sweet, lemon blossom aroma and no juice or pulp. The mild-tasting pith is not bitter, so the fruit can be zested or used whole."
MERIEL LINDLEY
Pear
Meriel's been painting in San Francisco, breaking all the rules as usual, and forging her own unique path! Great to see her keeping up her practice...
This painting is a mix of watercolour and ink. She's been attending a botanical painting class taught by Mary Harden, a well known and highly respected teacher in the northern part of California.
CONGRATULATIONS KATHRYN!
All three of KATHRYN MACDONALD'S submissions to the Art of the Plant were accepted! There is also a conference planned during the exhibition with guest instructors and speakers.
The show runs from May 10 - October 14th 2018 at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Stone Wall Gallery, Ottawa.
Big Leaf Maple | Acer macrophyllum
Douglas Fir | Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii
Cottonwood | Populus trichocarpa
KATHRYN MACDONALD
Kathryn has also been selling some prints of her paintings. She's in between lives right now so until she gets herself settled in her new home and sets up a web presence you can find out more about acquiring her artworks
by contacting her directly at kate_mac@telus.net
Poplar Skeleton Leaf
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Big Leaf Maple - Acer macrophyllum
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Sadly for us Kathryn is packing up and moving back to Ontario this year. She will be based just outside Ottawa where she's already found a botanical painting group to hang out with. We miss you already...
MERIEL LINDLEY
Anemone Shell
This watery jewel is one of Meriel's summer paintings. She has a thing for shells...
It's already been 5 years that Meriel has been painting with us and in that time I've had the privilege of watching her develop her skills through some difficult changes. She had a bicycle accident a few years ago that broke her leg and took the sight from one of her eyes. Despite the frustrations that came with that she kept on painting, approaching her limitations with the mind of an explorer. When she was able to adjust to her new vision she embraced what became an opening for a new, more diffuse way of painting, surprising us all with the results.
All that she learned early on is still present in her new paintings along with a blossoming freedom of expression. She still manages to capture an incredible amount of detail, now more impressionistic and flowing, and a wonderful luminosity. She's been focusing on developing her understanding of colour by limiting her palette and exploring new ways of seeing.
I'm always amazed at Meriel's ability to take whatever life hands her, use it to learn something new and then bring it forward to share it with all of us.
NADIA CHIU
Succulent
of this little plant... a great start.
Nadia took my drawing class at Emily Carr years ago and wanted to take the painting class but got too busy with work. Already a graphic artist and illustrator, Nadia paints and draws and takes beautiful photographs.
PAM COHEN
Magnolia Skeleton Leaf
Time made this leaf this way, months outside in the winter rain and snow and sun.
Pam made this painting over the summer months, slowly and carefully recording every fine line and detail.
Time and patience and persistence, care and careful observation, time and the slowing down of the speed of life...
ELIZABETH KIDD
Calla Lily
Yes, it really was this bright.
Elizabeth had a whole plant with many flowers, each of which started bright and vibrant but faded to a butter yellow before falling away too quickly. It was a bit frustrating having to switch from bloom to bloom in one painting but she got there in the end.
FABIENNE DELIBALTA
Capsicum annuum
PAM COHEN
Red Onion
Here is the original drawing, wonderfully rendered in great detail. Both works retain a great sense of roundness and dimension.
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